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Monday, October 31, 2016

What a long weekend. Seriously, I started working on things right after schooling wrapped on Friday. I started by tatting up a bracelet that sold, but I couldn't find in my inventory. I'm sure it's there, but since it didn't want to be found after a couple of rummages through, it was a better use of my time to just make up a new one.

After that task was done, it was onto Halloween costumes. I got to play with some faux fur and subsequently developed a sincere dislike for the stuff. I made a set of squirrel ears and followed that up with some boot cuffs for the same Squirrel Girl costume. Then it was onto creating a utility belt out of yellow duct tape complete with pouches that started life as band-aid boxes. Don't worry, after the kids get dressed up today, I'll take photos to share.

Saturday included taking a skirt in for the other child's costume and ripping lace off shorts for the first one. That was followed by errand running and much cleaning. We ended the weekend by hosting a birthday dinner for my mother that somehow included 10 kids. I am seriously exhausted and today should be quite busy as well. There's regular schooling, then trick-or-treating at the husbands work. Then of course it's regular trick-or-treating with the cousins. Yep, it's going to be another long one.

Friday, October 28, 2016

The clouds rolled in yesterday creating an overcast solemn day. It was just what what I needed to become as lazy as humanly possible. I mean seriously, at one point in the afternoon, I contemplated taking an actual nap. If you knew how much I do not do naps, you would be terribly shocked by that statement.

As you might have guessed from those admissions of sloth, I did not really work on anything despite my queue of projects that I was so happy to have. I did finish tatting one necklace and then I spent a little time knotting on the doily. I didn't do enough to feel like I accomplished anything yesterday though. That is, of course, unless curling up under a blanket on the couch for a couple of hours can be considered an accomplishment.

This weekend should be busy though. I have Halloween costume pieces to finish, a house to clean before we host a family birthday dinner, and a handful of other small tasks I've been putting off. All this to do and I'll have to fight off the weather-enhanced malaise that the rain brings me. Crossing my fingers for some positive motivation now.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

I was definitely busy yesterday. I went straight from schooling to my annual check-up, then it was straight back home to the queue of tatting I have built up from the last couple of orders. I started with this Cathedral bracelet. The matching choker is in my lap to help me remember the stitch counts. It has a really nice shape to it when it's done.

After that one was done I started on a necklace that I haven't quite finished yet. I keep getting distracted by knitting and crochet pieces I want to make for myself. Luckily I have very little yarn on hand, so I can stay focused on the tatting. I still have two necklaces to finish, two bracelets that I could remake and one Armenian knotted lace necklace as well. So, if I want to stick with remaking, I have plenty of pieces to chose from. I may not remake them all though, since a few of those have sold very little, but we'll see I guess. I definitely prefer have a queue of things to do rather than trying to busy myself with nonsense all day.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

During most of the day, I worked on the newest doily. It's growing slowly, but I still have plenty of time to get it made up. Then about halfway through the day, well no, more like the middle of the afternoon, I got another order in the shop. This time it was a couple of 'choose your color' pendants, so I had some tatting to do after all.

I am seriously getting spoiled by these almost consistent-feeling
sales in my etsy shop. They are allowing me to have tatting to photograph and share on all the social media sites daily, which I think is also helping as advertising too. I am crossing my fingers constantly that this trend holds up. This is one of my Stained Glass Star pendants that was ordered. I had two to make and there were a couple bracelets in the order that I should remake as well.

I even woke up this morning to another order in my shop. Everything in the order is already made and ready to ship, but I will definitely want to remake the pieces from this one as well. All that, plus a check-up today, so I should keep mighty busy. I love busy.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

So the oldest child had one hell of a long and stressful school day yesterday. There was a media project due, that she knew about for a week, and stalled on until the day it was due. I wish I could say that this is a trait she did not get from me, but I likely contributed at least a little to the characteristic. At any rate, that kept me busy pushing her to get it done until way after our usual schooling end time.

Once she was finally done, I sat down to work on what should be the last gift doily, unless I think of someone else really soon. I'm not hiding the color because I don't think that I need to this time around. When I finish making and mounting them all, I'll get pictures to share after they've been given out. Until then, enjoy the red here and no, I have no plans at this time to turn these into ornaments. I feel like they would be far too delicate for that use, though maybe with size 10 thread and stiffened, it might work. I am not, however, making anything to do with that particular holiday, save for the gifts, until October is well and truly finished.

Monday, October 24, 2016

I don't want to jinx anything but I got another order over the weekend. Seriously, I just stopped typing to knock on wood, but I've been loving the increase in tatting in my life lately. I've had time to work on other things as well, so the balance is just right, so far. This is the bracelet that I sold yesterday. I remade it one for the shop while reading.

The rest of the weekend was full of house projects and running about with the family. I still haven't finished putting together the oldest daughter's costume pieces, but I know how to do them now and I still have time. I did also finish the small gift doily I was working on. I opted to make it smaller than the others so it would be completely different. I've already started on another for one last person. At least I think this is the last one, who knows if I'll think of someone else who needs one in the next month.

Do today, it's making the new doily and crossing my fingers for more more orders in the shop. You know, a normal Monday.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Right after schooling wrapped, I went to work on a custom ivory scallop bracelet. It's been awhile since I made this one, but it's a simple one, made in one piece. I had it done by the middle of the afternoon and started on remaking the other piece from the order, a black choker. I finished the choker as well, but never got around to working on the Armenian lace doily though.

Since I finished the order I got, it'll be put in the mail this morning.
I suppose I'll go back to the doily and cross my fingers that the more frequent orders I've been getting lately are the beginning of a trend. I'm sad that every few days is now my definition of more frequent. There's nothing for it though, I'm certainly busy enough with other life stuff as it is.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

It was mostly a nice and quiet day yesterday. Schooling wrapped fairly early with no issues and I sat down to knot with one cat who cuddled with me much of the day. I got a couple of rounds done before we were off to the comic book store early with the family. We wanted to go early so that we could get home in time to watch a DVR'd show before the debate.

Then there was that last debate and a couple of glasses of wine. I actually managed to keep knotting during the debate until someone was baited and lost the plot again. It's hard to knot when you're yelling, 'liar' and, 'yes, you did say that," at the orange man on television all night. I have to say that I'll be quite glad when this nonsense is over, provided it actually hasn't jump started the apocalypse. It's a good thing I'm surround by thread and calming cats.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

I got the lovely surprise of an order in my etsy shop just as we were starting the schooling day. It was my last cat ear headband, so I sent it right off in the post and as soon as schooling was wrapped I started making a couple more of them.

Between the tatting, a spot of cleaning, and errand running, the afternoon was completely covered. I think I managed half a round on the doily before the evening was over, so I have nothing to show you from that project. I did suss out the method to make the pieces I need to for the child's Halloween costume, but didn't start that either.

I'll get back to the doily today and probably save the fun fur sewing project for the weekend. I'm not really looking forward to the mess it might make. Crossing my fingers that I make it through tonight's debate without downing a whole bottle of wine.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

So I didn't hear a peep back from the oldest's teacher. I spent the morning on edge waiting for a response and then nothing. I did notice that perhaps my request for more announcements might have hit home though so I'm going to assume I'm not getting a response.

The rest of the day I caught up with the DVR and knotted a bit on the newest doily. I'm still working on the basket stitch sections and I haven't yet decided what's next on the piece. This is all that's on the agenda today, though I need to set aside some time to finish the last bits for the kids' Halloween costumes soon. There's not much to be done, but I don't want to stall all the way to the last minute, maybe I'll just use some time to at least plan them out today. I guess we'll just have to see how the day goes.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Well, it was quite a busy weekend, but it started with schooling frustrations. My oldest's new teacher has, in my opinion, communication problems. We were sent an email about something that implied that we knew about something previously and that this was just a clarification, which we did not and it was not. Luckily, I had someone else to ask for actual clarity, but it's still increasingly frustrating. I sent a message late Friday asking for more and clearer communication from the teacher going forward and have been stressed about the response I might receive today. The rest of the weekend was busy with family events and dinners. Those were nice and relaxing, mostly.

In other, more thread related news, I did work on the latest doily. I didn't have too much in the way of uninterrupted sitting time except when we were trying to catch up with the DVR. The pineapple round took forever and made me not want to do anymore of those on this piece. I'm sticking with the basket stitch for a bit and then I'll reevaluate after a few of those I think.

This week is wrought with assignment deadlines for the kids so I'm just hoping I survive it completely sane. Maybe the knotting can keep me focused or maybe this is the week I'll be discovered curled in a ball on the floor somewhere muttering to myself. It's really a toss up at this point.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Yes, there was much cleaning yesterday and a little reading, but I also managed a bit of knotting as well. I didn't really make much progress since I'm starting a row of pineapples and those things take forever on the first round. The next few rounds should fly by though.

We're suppose to see the first real rain of the fall this weekend, so I'm hoping to squeeze in some sitting with a blanket and tea along with some knotting. So far this fall has just been like summer with cooler evenings, so I'm looking forward to a little weather. I'm hoping the change will also be a bit inspiring creatively. Something certainly needs to give in that department soon.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

I cleaned yesterday, so consequently I have nothing much to share with you. I hadn't bothered to do any real cleaning in quite awhile as we'd had no guests planned. I mean I pick up, and do laundry, and dishes, and that sort of thing, but that's about it. This week we are having family over, so I made an effort. Since that left me with no new thread art to share, I grabbed another photo from our Sequoia trip to post instead.

There will likely be a little more cleaning today, but I'm hoping for at least a little knotting or tatting, if I can think of a reason to do so. Otherwise, it'll just be more enormous trees tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

So I definitely needed the sitting time yesterday. It's amazing how one day of adventure can exhaust a person. I did a little reading and I decided to do a little knotting to keep my hands busy. I think there might be another couple doilies in my near future. There were a couple of people I didn't think I was going to make them for, but the more I think about it, the more I think they may be put out to have not been included in the great doily gift-away. So, not so much that I think they would really want one, but more that they would wonder why everyone else got one and not them. There's still time, so I'll just add them to the list especially since I haven't had any brilliant tatting ideas in a really long time. I'll just try some new pattern ideas and hope I can come up with a couple more that don't look too much like all the others.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Well, my legs are seriously sore this morning, but we had a lovely day yesterday. We headed out on a drive into the mountains. We went to Sequoia National Park for the day. It's about a two hour drive from us to entrance of the park and then almost 7000ft up to get to the good stuff which includes General Sherman, the world's largest single stem tree. That's it behind me and the girls, way behind us.

We also walked a few trails including one we let the oldest child spontaneously pick as we walked past the trail head. It was both a good and bad choice. Good, as it was completely deserted allowing up a quick, private hike in the Giants Forest, bad, as it was quite an uphill adventure that exhausted us all. Plus, we didn't actually have a trail map, so we had no real idea where we were going.

We had a nice lunch and visited with the bravest chipmunk ever as it hoped we would drop something, we didn't. It ran around us and under our table the whole time.We enjoyed listening to the largely international park guests and a bit of people watching near the more popular locations, but it was orders of magnitude less crowded than Yosemite, which we visit more often.

I've got some serious plans to sit on my rear today and recover from what my fitbit tells me was the equivalent of walking 75 flights of stairs. I'm sure my hands will get bored though and I'll get up to something. I'll leave you with one last picture of the General.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Okay, let's see, weekend recap. Well, I finished the knitting project. It still needs to be washed and de-furred, the cats left their mark quite impressively, but otherwise it's done. I also took some more time to pin and frame doilies. Thank you everyone for your pin comments. I chose these pins because they are small so they won't detract from the doily in the shadow box frame. I opted for pins so I wouldn't have to use any glue or stiffener on them to mount them. I guess I felt that this way, should one of the recipients every want to take it out and display it more traditionally, they can and there's a better chance that they'll survive the test of time. I do have a nice leather finger protector that helped this go around, but it's awkward to wear, so mostly I did without.

Other than those projects, we watched some movies and did a little cleaning. There was also shopping to finish up the kids' Halloween costumes. I just have a couple of things to create for them and we're all done with that. We finished up the weekend with that 'scorched earth' debate and a bit too much wine. Today we're taking advantage of the kids' day off from school to head to a national park and adventure a bit. We've not been to this one since we were kids ourselves, so it'll be new for the whole family. So here's to a nice relaxing day.

Friday, October 7, 2016

Just to change things up a little bit, I spent some time mounting another doily. This time I'm not disguising the color because it's such a small section of the piece. I had actually intended to do more of them yesterday, but these tiny little pins are murder on my fingers. In fact, my fingertips are still a little tender this morning. They're call sequins pins and they're only a half an inch long. Hell, I think the heads of these are are narrow as my tatting needle, so pushing them in is like pushing this tip of that.

I did also read and knit as well. I think the knitting project should be wrapped up this weekend and then I'll have to decide on something new to do. I wish I could say that I'm in the mood to create something entirely new for the shop, but it continues to be so quiet there that I don't feel encouraged to add to it in any way. I know that's likely the wrong way to think about it, but when I sell nothing, I feel like making nothing, thus all the time spent making gifts instead. I guess I'll just cross my fingers yet again for something to give.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

As expected, yesterday was all reading and knitting. So that means that I don't have anything new to share with you. Good thing I saved the picture of the bracelet I just remade to post. I don't even remember what I named this one. I just went back and looked and it's called Vanity because I named it after the vintage pattern that it started as. Like the necklace yesterday, I made many changes and additions to the original design to turn this into a bracelet.

Hopefully I'll remember today and get both these pieces relisted in my shop. I don't have much else to do after all. Well aside from schooling the kids much of the day and then there's the reading and knitting, but otherwise the day is free.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

I finished up the tatting I had to do pretty early in the morning and sent the order off in the post. I then spent most of the rest of the day reading and knitting. I didn't take any new pictures though. I was asked which pieces sold, but I haven't quite relisted them yet, so this is the necklace that sold twice in recent weeks. I call it the Queen of the Nile because it reminds me of those huge Egyptian collar type necklaces. It began life as a vintage table setting pattern, though there was a lot of additions to it. If I fail to take pictures today, I'll post the bracelet that sold tomorrow.

I don't have any other projects today either, so it'll be knitting and reading again. I actually finished one book yesterday. It's much easier to get though them quickly when they are Biblically long. So that's it for today. Here's hoping for a little outside intervention in my plans.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

I know that this is shocking, but I actually tatted much of the day yesterday. Why? Well, because I got a wonderful order in my shop. It came in right after schooling was wrapped, so it was perfectly timed. I started by remaking this tatted cuff bracelet. While I've made it several times, it had been awhile so I wanted to get it made up before I ship the order out to its new owner this morning. It's a nice sizable piece so it took much of the day to get made.

After the bracelet was done I went onto the necklace that was sold, which was the same one that I sold, I think, a couple of weeks ago. I got started on it, but I will have to finish it today. I also got a little knitting done in the morning during schooling, but I didn't have a chance to mount the doilies yet. Orders always come first, plus it had just been a while since I had anything to tat up. I'd hate to get out of practice.

So today I have the necklace to finish and then I will likely spend my time knitting unless I get a nice chunk of time and space to mount doilies. There's really no rush with those as Christmas is still quite some time away, but I like to have things done and dusted well ahead of time to avoid holiday stress.

Monday, October 3, 2016

I had quite a weekend. I finished the enormous novel Jerusalem on Friday. It was definitely worth the read, though again it is not for everyone. I feel like I learned things and achieved something by finishing it. I get the feeling it would have meant even more had I been from Northampton, or really any other small city with real history, but here the history is awfully shallow.

Saturday, I knitted a lot because we were binge watching Luke Cage on Netflix pretty much all day. The binging spilled over into Sunday as well as the knitting. There was another fun task on Sunday though. We recently had a false alarm with all our smoke alarms going off and we learned that you're supposed to replace them all every 10 years. So, alarms were ordered and we sussed out which circuit they were all on, since they're all interconnected in our house. Sunday it was up and down ladders to get them all wired, installed and tested. Basically my legs are sore and I'm surprised that I can hear again today.

I did make significant progress on the knitted blanket, but there's more work still of course. I also got in the other shadow box frames for the doilies, so I might take some time today to get those all mounted. There were no orders in the shop over the weekend, so these are the only tasks I have to start the week with. Here's to a good one.